Archives for FUBAR

As every school kid knows, Harry Truman instituted the doctrine of ultimate responsibility. The "buck stops here" became the symbol of strong leadership from an Oval Office where the phrase was prominently displayed on the presidential desk. Truman mainly held to that approach except now and then when he relied on something we've come to know as "plausible deniability," as had presidents before him.

Just as the economy is showing hopeful signs of life and the federal government is turning a profit on the early bailout money, the country may get blitzed by a second round of foreclosures -- this time on commercial property instead of homes.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a large and still-undetermined chunk of $700 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities, CMBS, is in trouble thanks to a massive downturn in the commercial real-estate market.

Like the mortgage bonds that caused such havoc when the housing market went south, commercial mortgages are packaged up and sold as bonds. Like homeowners betting that the value of their house would keep going up, investors in CMBS bet that the occupancy, rents and underlying value of commercial real estate -- hotels, malls, office buildings, etc. -- would keep rising.Read More

Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, under fire from former colleagues in the Bush administration for saying politics ruled terror threat levels during that administration's time in the White House, is backpedaling and saying that's not what he meant.

Ridge, in his first interview since allegations of manipulating threat levels for political gain surfaced last week, now says he didn't mean to suggest such a thing.

When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater's lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Blackwater told the CIA that it "could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support — all of the things you need to conduct an operation," a former senior CIA official familiar with the secret program told The Associated Press.

President Barack Obama marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday by pledging to make sure that turf wars and red tape don't slow the pace of the continuing recovery.

He also said he would visit New Orleans by years' end.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president noted that the Bush administration's response to the killer storm raised questions among people in the U.S. about whether the government "could fulfill its responsibility to respond in a crisis."

He said he wanted to ensure "that the legacy of a terrible storm is a country that is safer and more prepared for the challenges that may come."

President Richard Nixon considered Ted Kennedy such a threat that he tried to catch Kennedy cheating on his wife, even ordering aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spill secrets on the senator's behavior.

"Do you have anybody in the Secret Service that you can get to?" Nixon asked his aide John Ehrlichman in a stark series of Oval Office conversations about Kennedy before the 1972 election. "Yeah, yeah," Ehrlichman replied.

"Plant one," Nixon said. "Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful."

A priority task confronting President Obama when he returns from vacation is stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan, which Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has described as "serious and deteriorating."

Militarily, the Taliban, operating from safe havens in Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks on NATO-led forces and their rocketing and bombing of cities and villages. Sometimes the Taliban's violence seems mindless, like the bombing that leveled a whole block in Kandahar, killing more than 40. Neither the location nor the victims had any military significance.

At a recent town hall meeting, widely shown on cable TV, a nearly hysterical, sobbing woman was saying that her insurance company had denied home health care for her bedridden husband.

The congressman listened to her, promised that his staff would look into the matter and went on to say that the trouble with America today is government.

Americans in such situations have to turn to each other for help, he said, warning there is too much dependence on government.

Leaving aside the obvious fact that the congressman-who-hates-government is part of government -- and gets his paycheck from taxpayers, how many neighbors have the proper nursing skills and the time to help with rigorous daily care for someone who is not a relative?

The raging national debate over ObamaCare revolves largely around spending. Should Washington plunge itself $1.1 trillion deeper into medicine? While this conversation dominates the headlines, Americans also should consider how tax cuts could improve the delivery and payment of health care.

Republicans, for instance, have proposed tax credits to help Americans purchase health insurance that they would own, control, and carry with them throughout their lives, rather than rely on employers to provide such coverage. Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.'s Patients Choice Act would make insurance more affordable via tax credits worth up to $2,300 for individuals and $5,700 for families.